Jimmy Carter died today. Although he's most famous for being US president he also help save a nuclear plant that had melted down and was on the river that flowed past Ottawa.
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Jimmy Carter as midshipman, date unknown
Naval History and Heritage Command Photo Archives Branch, photo no. L38-14.02.01.
Chalk River Laboratories is a nuclear research plant in Deep River, Ontario, 180 km up the Ottawa River from Ottawa, Canada's capital. In December 1952 the control rods were accidently removed and three jammed, causing the reactor to overheat and flood the containment building. Carter was doing working on a nuclear submarine program in Schenectady, NY, not far from Ontario, and he and 150 other US Navy personell came to Chalk River. Carter and his team worked to dismantle the reactor in an environment with so much radiation they could only stay in the building for 90 seconds.
He came back to Canada several times, including one stint building affordable houses in Kitchener, Ontario in 1993 with Habitat for Humanity. He also corrected the impression left by the 2012 film Argo that the CIA operative did everything in extracting the US embassy staff from Tehran when most of the work was done by Canadians.
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